A vaporizer is a device used to extract the active ingredients of plant material, e.g., cannabis, tobacco, or other herbs or blends, for inhalation by a human. Vaporization involves heating a material so that its active compounds boil off into a vapor. As opposed to smoking, i.e., burning, vaporization avoids the production of irritating, toxic, and carcinogenic by-products. In fact, no combustion occurs, so no smoke or taste of smoke is present.
Studies show that vapor contains substantially zero particulate matter or tar, and, in comparison to smoking, significantly lower concentrations of noxious gases such as carbon monoxide. It has also been shown that, in comparison to other drug delivery methods, such as ingestion, vaporization has a more rapid onset of pharmacological effect, direct delivery into the bloodstream (via the lungs), and more precise titration such that the desired level is reached and not exceeded, enabling consistent and appropriate dosage.
Referring now to FIG. 1, one embodiment of a prior-art vaporizer 100 is shown in a perspective view. The prior-art vaporizer 100, as shown in FIG. 1, includes a vaporizer control box 102, a material holder 106, and a vapor inhalation device 104, e.g., a long flexible drawtube (“whip”) through which the user inhales the vapor, reducing its temperature on arrival. The inhalation device 104 includes a mouthpiece 108 at its end.
The vapor inhalation device 104 provides an airtight sealed pathway between the material holder 106 and the user's mouth. However, even at the end of the vapor inhalation device 104, the vapor is at a temperature that is still too hot for comfortable ingestion by a human. In addition, the vapor often contains a somewhat unpleasant taste due to the heated air passing over and being heated by the heating element(s) within the vaporizer control box 102, as well as picking up particles, dust, and/or the characteristics of the substance being vaporized and inhaled.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.